| This lovely village
on the east coast of the Lizard, with its tiny harbour wall of 1724 made
from local hornblende and serpentine, seems a peaceful and sheltered place
on a sunny summer's afternoon - but the photographs in the bar of the
Paris Hotel show just how devastating a storm here can be. The hotel is
named after an American passenger liner which ran aground off Lowland
Point in 1899. There was no loss of life on that occasion, but only a
year before that the steamship Mohegan was wrecked on the dreaded
Manacle Rocks beyond Lowland Point and 106 people were drowned. Soon after
that a lifeboat was stationed at Coverack (and the stout lifeboat house
built just by the harbour) because, as was said at the time, 'the fishermen
of this village are familiar with the Manacles and the boot could be launched
in all waters'. |
